Scraping By

Seth Rockman is an assistant professor of history at Brown University and author of Welfare Reform in the Early Republic.

• List of Figures and TablesSeries Editor's ForewordIntroduction1. Coming to Work in the City2. A Job for a Working Man3. Dredging and Drudgery4. A Job for a Working Woman5. The Living Wage6. The Hard Work of Being Poor7. The Consequence of Failure8. The Market's GraspConclusionAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsNotesEssay on SourcesIndex

Graceful, engaging work. History Wire - Where the Past Comes Alive 2009 Scraping By is an impressive, eloquently written study that provides a seminal history of Baltimore's working class, and makes a fine addition to the already outstanding list of titles in the Studies in Early American Economy and Society series. Maryland Historical Magazine 2009 Scraping By is about breaking new ground: the often nasty, unhealthy labor essential to Baltimore's growth as a boomtown from the 1790s to 1830s. Rockman breaks new ground himself in studying 'low-end laborers': slaves, free blacks, European immigrants, and the native-born who struggled to cobble together a few days' ill-paid toil... Highly recommended. Choice 2009 Seth Rockman has written a powerful book... Scraping By is an ambitious, impressive, and fully realized piece of work that will engage and educate scholars, teachers, citizens, and activists. The book will take its place on the shelf beside the classics of early American labor history, written by Ira Berlin, William B. Morris, Gary B. Nash, Billy G. Smith, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, and Alfred F. Young. -- Marcus Rediker William and Mary Quarterly 2010 Seth Rockman has written a book to be reckoned with... This is a terrific book, at times abrasive, which deserves a wide audience. That would include undergraduates, for whom Rockman's vivid writing and clear argument should resonate, especially within an economic climate that is forcing millions more to scrape by. -- John Bezis-Selfa American Historical Review 2009 Rockman began working on Scraping By well before the current economic downturn, yet the recent record-breaking rates of un- and under-employment make this analysis of American capitalism's development all the more timely. Rockman's skillful work, however, seems likely to outlast this stage of the business cycle... All historians of the era, as well as economic historians of every era, will want to read this fine book. -- Lynda Yankaskas Common-Place 2010 This is an engaging, deeply researched, and well-written study of labor, class, and capitalism in early national-era Baltimore. -- Simon P. Newman Journal of American History 2010 Well researched, attentive to larger national and international contexts, and admirably written, this book is a commendable step forward in the writing of the history of U.S. labor. -- Susanna Delfino Journal of Southern History An important work of labour history. -- Sally Hadden The Jounral of Continuity and Change 2010